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A RIDE THROUGH KANZAS. 

BY THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. 

[The foHowing letters were originally published, with the signature of Worcester, in the 

New York Tribune.] 

I. — NEBRASKA CITY. 

Nebraska City, Sept. 12, 1856. 

Nebraska City is a handful of one-story cabins, interspersed with, an 
equal number of magnificent distances, all beautifully situated on a bluff 
overlooking the muddy Missouri. It has one or two groves of " tim- 
ber " about it, and there are noble woods on the rich bottom-land across 
the river. The village itself, like other Western villages, has a tavern 
and three or four land offices, and the principal pursuit of the inhab- 
itants consists in sitting on the doorsteps of these structures, waiting for 
real estate to rise. It does rise, however, very fast, and the name of the 
settlement may be more veracious at some future time. At present, in 
this region, if a place is tolerably large, it is called a town. If other- 
wise, something must be done for it, and it is christened Something 
City. 

This is a good way into the Far West. From childhood I had learned 
by Worcester's Geography that Council Bluffs was the extreme verge of 
the imaginable horizon. When at last the stage rolled me in there, I 
felt as strangely as a little boy on the Canada Railway, who, as the con- 
ductor shouted the name of the little village of London, sprang up, half 
awake, behind me, exclaiming, " Do we really pass through LONDON, 
that great city ! " 

Set it down as a general rule that all statements of Iowa Kanzas Com- 
mittees in regard to stage routes are incorrect ; and in fact those of 
everybody else, for the only fixed rule of the Western Stage Company is 
to do nothing to-day, as it was done yesterday. And as each driver 
goes but ten or fifteen miles, and knows nothing beyond his own route, 
and as the agent at each end hardly knows that, it is impossible to state 
at any given moment what will be done. When the stage ought to go, 
it stops, and when it should stop, it goes. No wonder, then, if Kanzas 
Committees are wrong, when nobody is right. But it may save some 
disappointment if I say that there is not a single direct stage route across 
1 

I 



-^6 3 



2 ANTI-SLAVERY TRACTS, 

Iowa to Nebraska City, of any sort, and that whether one starts from Iowa 
City or Mount Pleasant, it is equally necessary to bring up at Council 
Bluffs, and thence get down the river as one can, the best way being to 
take a stage which leaves twice a week for Sidney, at the convenient 
hour of midnight. Sidney is fifteen miles from this city, and one must 
choose between a private conveyance thence, and a hack which is said to 
run twice a week with the mails. 

There is thus no stage line over the greater part of either route, and 
this is a great inconvenience. A route has been talked of in the news- 
papers, and even announced in handbills, running directly from Mount 
Pleasant to this place, through the second tier of Iowa counties, but I 
am satisfied that there is no prospect of its being opened. In the mean 
time, the one hope of Kanzas emigration is the Burlington and Missouri 
Rivers Railroad. Let Eastern capitalists remember this. 

At present no person, without actually travelling across Iowa, can ap- 
preciate the injury done by the closing of the Missouri Biver. Emi- 
grants must toil, week after week, beneath a burning sun, over the 
parched and endless •' rolling prairie," sometimes seeing no house for a 
day or two together, camping often without wood, and sometimes with- 
out water, and obliged to carry with them every eatable they use. It is 
no wonder that they often fall sick on the way ; and when I consider 
how infinitely weary were even my four days and nights of staging, 
(after as many more of railroad travel,) I can only wonder at the pa- 
tience and fortitude which the present emigrants have shown. 

As soon as one approaches the Missouri River, even in Iowa and 
Nebraska, he begins to feel as if he were in France or Austria. Men 
are very cautious in defining their position, and wait to hear what others 
will say. Then, perhaps, their tongues are slightly loosed, if they think 
there are no spies about them. But it is no slight risk when a man 
may have to pay with his life, further down the river, for a free word, 
spoken at Council Bluffs or Sidney, both Pro-Slavery towns. 

The first night I spent in this place, it seemed as if a symbolical 
pageant had been got up to remind me where I was. I sat writing by 
an open window in the beautiful moonlight. A party of boys in the 
street were shouting and screeching, playing " Border Ruffian," and 
** storming a fort." In a building beyond, two very inexperienced per- 
formers played martial tunes with a drum and fife. Within, the small 
tavern rocked with the music and dancing of a border ball. Thus I sat 
between tragedy and comedy. 

But there is plenty of genuine tragedy. Coming from a land where 
milionaires think themselves generous in giving fifty dollars to Kanzas, 
I converse daily with men who have sacrificed all their property in it& 



A RIDE THROUGH KANZAS. 3 

service, and are ready at any hour to add their lives. Refugees come 
every few days from Leavenworth City, and tell, with a quiet despera- 
tion, of the wrongs and outrages there transacted. " Come, Uncle 
George," says the latest informant, " have a seat on this log, and I '11 
tell you all about it." So Uncle George sits down, takes out his long 
jack-knife, selects a convenient stick, and begins to whittle. The in- 
formant takes out his knife, and follows suit, and a few bystanders settle 
down and begin to whittle likewise. Then comes the story, " all 
which he saw, and part of which he was" — how the Missourians came 
over to vote, and voted — how enraged they were that the Free State 
men would not vote — how they collected in mobs at last, maddened by 
whiskey — how they went from house to house and shop to shop, while 
men took their wives and children to the fort, and fled themselves — 
how they tarred and feathered one of Uncle George's friends, and ran 
another out of town, and murdered another — how, like devils, they 
behaved inside his handsome house, destroying what they could not 
steal, and trying at last to set it on fire. " Your loss can't be less than 
$6,000, old fellow," concludes his frank informant, who has himself lost 
that or more, " even if they did n't burn your block of stores, which 
they alloioed to do after I left." Uncle George hears it all in silence, 
whittles faster or slower according to the excitement of the narrative, 
and quietly says at last, with a slight moisture in the corner of either 
eye, "Well, my old woman was out of it, anyhow." 

Meantime, in regard to Topeka and Lawrence, the accounts are some- 
what confused even here, only one hundred and twenty-five miles off. 
The last arrival left Topeka on Friday, Sept. 5. He reports the condi- 
tion of affairs such as you have doubtless had narrated before now. The 
fortifications around Lawrence, and so on ; — the people provided with 
beef and potatoes, but entirely out of flour and of lead. As to the road 
between here and there, he saw fewer Missourians than previous parties 
have seen ; and there is reason to think that Richardson's bands have 
been drawn off for a time, to re-enter at a time agreed upon — probably 
when their spies report that our emigrant train is ready to set forth — 
though if it amounts to half their number, it is not likely that they will 
dare to attack it. 

The train is passing through here piecemeal, on its way from a tem- 
porary encampment at Tabor to another at the Little Nemaha, twenty- 
five miles south of this place. The largest section of it is a party of some . 
fifty Massachusetts and Maine men. Having personally assisted in or- 
ganizing this party and starting them from Boston, I can testify to their 
character. Some of them own their own wagons and bring pecuniary 
means with them ; others have only brave hearts and strong bodies ; 



4 ANTI-SLAVERY TRACTS. 

and they complain of nothing but the long delay, as they left July 24. 
Beside these, there are smaller parties from Vermont, Ohio, Illinois, and 
Iowa, who bring much valuable property. "When we are all collected 
on the Little Nemaha, I shall, perhaps, have time to write more defi- 
nitely as to the numbers of the train, which will probably count up to 
several hundred. 

Every one admits the fine appearance and excellent conduct of the 
whole party thus far. Even the mean editor of The Nebraska News, a 
little Administration paper published here, can find nothing against the 
emigrants, except that they look dusty and ragged. Probably he would 
prefer them if they had tramped across three hundred miles of prairie in 
ruffles and patent leather. But the article has been of use in the re- 
action which it has produced. Even Pro- Slavery men here see that it 
may injure the place, though not the emigrants, and the first citizens 
are signing a protest against it. The fact is, that an effort is already 
being made to turn the emigration through Plattsmouth, (where the 
ferry is better than here,) and the people of this village perceive where 
their interest lies. The train will spend some $2,500 or more here, 
first and last, and not the slightest disorder has yet been charged on a 
single member of the company. If the market were larger, our pur- 
chases would be larger also. I have myself bought up for the emi- 
grants all the cowhide boots to be found in town, (except extra sizes,) 
and nearly all the flannel shirts and blankets. 

Missouri, however, expects to rule Iowa and Nebraska, as well as 
Kanzas. It is openly threatened that the new steam ferry boat, now 
being built at St. Louis, shall never come up the river to be used in 
carrying emigrants ; and this is fast converting the owner of the ferry, 
born in Missouri, and hitherto Pro-Slavery, into an Anti-Slavery man. 
The Missourians also threaten to attack Tabor, Iowa, which is only 
some twenty miles from the border, and which is an Anti- Slavery town. 
Indeed, the citizens of Tabor are entitled to everlasting gratitude for 
their unwearied kindness to our emigrants. The sick have been cared 
for, clothing has been made, and every house, stable, and melon-patch, 
has been common property. Let the Eastern States hold this thriving 
little village in grateful remembrance. 

I am here as a sort of General Agent, to put the train through, and 
shall, of course, go in with it, to Kanzas. 

II. — NEBRASKA TO KANZAS. 

Topeka, Sept. 25, 1856. 
I wrote last from Nebraska City, just before the train of emigrants 
left that place for this. I reached here yesterday, a day or more in ad- 



A RIDE THROUGH KANZAS. 5 

Vance of them, having pushed through, for the last two days, with a few 
companions. The distances on the route are about as follows : — To 
Camp Creek, or Worcester, twelve miles ; thence to Little Nemaha River 
and Village, fifteen miles ; to Archer, fifteen miles ; to Plymouth, 
(Kanzas,) twelve miles ; to Lexington, ten miles ; to Indian Village, 
thirty- five miles ; to Topeka, fifteen miles. This would make the whole 
distance one hundred and fourteen miles, and it is variously estimated 
from that up to one hundred and forty. The route is also somewhat 
circuitous, and will be shortened hereafter. The road is uniformly a 
good prairie road, except where a creek is to be crossed, and there 
is a steep pitch on each side, with a slough between. No serious 
accident, however, occurred to any of our teams. Of the localities 
above-named, Nemaha and Archer are thriving little Nebraska settle- 
ments, each with lodging-house and store. Worcester, in Nebraska, 
is one log-house. Plymouth consists of an earthen redoubt on a hill, 
and two log-houses in the distance, Lexington is a log-fort in the 
centre of a prairie, where seven of our brave Worcester boys were labori- 
ously digging the best well I have seen in this region — thirty- five feet 
deep and nine wide. Both Plymouth and Lexington, however, are very 
favorable town sites, and well laid out. The companies who settled 
them are now returning from the seat of war, and if they can only ob- 
tain food and clothing during the winter, (a doubtful prospect,) these 
will yet be flourishing towns. That well of water, at least, will be a 
clear gain to Kanzas in all coming time. 

Except these, there are no settlements over this long route till In- 
dianola, a few miles from Topeka. There are occasional log-houses, 
however, and it is, on the whole, more inhabited than the western part 
of Iowa. 

Our train included about one hundred and forty men and some twenty 
women and children. There were twenty-eight wagons — all but eight 
being horse-teams. Our nightly tents made quite a little colony, and 
presented a busy scene. While some watered and fed the stock, others 
brought wood for the fires ; others prepared the tents and wagons for 
sleeping ; others reloaded pistols or rifles, and the leaders arranged the 
nightly watch or planned the affairs of the morrow. Meanwhile, the 
cooks fried pork, made coffee, and baked bread, and a gaping crowd, 
wrapped in blankets, sat around the fire. Women brought their babes, 
and took the best places they could find, and one worthy saddler brought 
out his board and leather every night and made belts and holsters for 
the men. We slept soundly in spite of the cold and of the scarcity of 
j, wood, and each kept watch for an hour, striding in thick boots through 
the grass, heavy with frost. Danger always seemed before us, though 
1* 



6 ANTI-SLAVERY TRACTS. 

we never actually got into it, and -we were never far from our rifles and 
revolvers. Truth compels the admission that my rifle was never pointed 
at anything more formidable than a superb hawk, which it brought 
down, and even that shot was disputed by a comrade, who fired at the 
same time. However, I have the wings. 

We came through without attack from the Missourians, as General 
Lane assured us that we should ; we had had their spies among us, but 
they had seen that we were well armed, and that our men, though quiet, 
were determined. 

The one thing that discouraged our party, however, was to meet other 
parties, day after day, returning. Men on horseback and on foot, with 
wagons and without, came along in ominous numbers. All told the 
same story. " What the Missourians have been trying for two years to 
do, Governor Geary has done in two weeks at last," said one man; " the 
Free State men are driven out." It was like entering Hungary just after 
the treachery of Gorgey. Each had his story to tell of arrests and tyr- 
rannies ; how a Pro-Slavery witness had only to point at a man as identi- 
fied with any measure of public defense, and he was seized at once. 
Several whom we met had been arrested in person, herded with a hun- 
dred others, like cattle, on the bare prairie, been scantily fed once a day, 
and escaped by rolling half a mile through the grass while the sentinels' 
backs were turned. The bravest young men of Lawrence were put un- 
der arrest, charged with treason, murder, arson, robbery, and what not ; 
while not a Pro-Slavery man was seized. This was the penalty they 
had to pay for defending themselves vigorously at last, and clearing their 
own soil from the invading Missourians. "The worst enemy Kanzas 
had ever had," they pronounced Governor Geary to be ; and they were 
going into Iowa to wait for better times. " Will you give up Kanzas ? " 
I asked.. " Never ! " was the reply from bronzed and bearded lips, stern 
and terrible as the weapons that hung to the saddle-bow. " We are 
scattered, starved, hunted, half-naked, but we are not conquered yet." 

Some of these were young men, whom I had seen go from prosperous 
homes, well clothed and cared for. I had since heard of them perform- 
ing acts of heroic courage in this summer's battles. Lane had praised 
them to me, and declared that there never was such courage in the world 
as that of the Free State men of Kanzas. " I saw one of them," said he, 
" ride up alone within thirty yards of a body of a hundred and fifty men, 
during an engagement, take deliberate aim, and bring one down." I 
now saw that very man — that boy rather, a Worcester boy — retreating 
from his adopted country, hungry, ragged, and almost barefooted, walk- 
ing wearily on, with others hunted like himself, while some, who had 
been less scrupulous, rode by on horses which they had plundered from 
the Missourians, who had first plundered them. 



A RIDE THROUGH KANZAS. 7 

It was such, processions as this -which welcomed us to unhappy Kan- 
sas. And when we reached the muddy banks of the world-famous 
river, we found not less than nineteen wagons of emigrants, fleeing with 
heavy hearts from the land of promise they sought so eagerly two years 
ago ; a sad greeting for the families we brought in. " Truly," said our 
informant, again, "The Free State men are leaving Kanzas at last ; Gov- 
ernor Geary has conquered them." 

As Hungary, having successfully resisted her natural enemy, Austria, 
yielded at length to the added strength of Russia ; so the Kossuths of 
Kanzas, just as they had cleared her borders of Missourians, are subdued 
by the troops of the United States at last. 

III.— AN ARREST. 

Lawrence, Kanzas, Sept. 28, 1856. 

It produces a singular effect upon the mind to awake in the morning, 
before daybreak, and find the house surrounded by a cordon of dragoons, 
each sitting silent on his horse. This was my experience this morning, 
followed by the information that they intended at daylight to search the 
house for the leaders of the party of immigrants of which I had been one 
of the conductors. Sallying forth and inquiring for the commanding 
officer, I was astonished at being accosted by name and discerning an old 
acquaintance. I then ascertained that the man chiefly aimed at was our 
common friend Redpath. Then appeared a gentlemanly young Virgin- 
ian, Colonel Preston, who introduced himself to me as the marshal who 
was to make the arrest, and gave further elucidation. 

I must go back and say that, as the emigrant train was arriving on the 
previous day, one hundred and forty United States dragoons had come 
riding through the town, followed by baggage wagons enough for a 
winter's campaign. They passed us with such unconcern that we re- 
garded them with much the same indifference; but Colonel Preston 
explained all that. It seems that the vigilant Governor had sent him in 
pursuit of an armed force of terrific numbers, said to be entering the 
Territory from Nebraska, under the most ferocious leaders. Therefore 
a special marshal was sent, clothed with almost unlimited powers, which 
he showed me, to arrest any or all of this party, and by all means to 
secure the leaders, especially Redpath. So the marshal rode past our 
peaceful train, looking for the warlike one, and happening to inquire at 
the last wagon, found that we, and none but we, were the expected army. 
Either the bird had flown, or it was a dove, and not a hawk. True, the 
dove carried a Sharp's rifle under his wing, but it was for defensive pur- 
poses only. So Colonel Preston and Captain Walker halted their force, 
unloaded their baggage wagons, camped uncomfortably on the prairie, 
and waked sadder and wiser men next morning. 



8 ANTI-SLAVERY TRACTS. 

True, they still wished to arrest Redpath, but after some courteous 
debate with Governor Robinson and myself, it was finally agreed, espe- 
cially as the victim could not be found, that he should be amicably 
invited to drive down to Lecompton with us, and call on the Governor. 
This seemed very natural and proper to me, as I had been twice arrested 
myself, in the same amicable manner, in the Bay State region. (Being 
brought before potentates in that manner suggests the same criticism 
made on the sedan chair with no bottom to it — "If it were not for the 
name of it, it is very much like walking.") 

So we four rode down behind the Governor's pair of horses (respecta- 
ble, but not dashing steeds, well w r orked) ; and the traitor and the cap- 
tor rode on the back seat together, and they interchanged cigars, and 
Redpath, who would be on easy terms with the Great Mogul at the 
second whiff, joked the young Colonel rather closely, and put in little 
keen questions about the decay of Virginia, and the good, generous, 
manly Governor Robinson had always a sensible word to add ; and we 
told our guest that we did n't approve of stealing horses, but approved 
particularly of " stealing niggers," and I really was pleased with his ex- 
emplary courtesy. I must, how r ever, put in the brief Yankee criticism 
of Captain \V., a staunch Free State man, on my praising these attri- 
butes in the young Virginian : " Confound him, does the manners well; 
so they all do, and shoot you the next minute, if they dare." 

We rode into the little village of Lecompton, caught a glimpse of the 
prisoners (whom I shall visit to-morrow), and found the Governor in a 
house pleasantly situated by the river. Poor man, there is nothing else 
that is pleasant in his situation. 

There is much more harmony in the opinions held here about the 
Governor than appears to have existed a week or two ago. It does not 
take long to see through him. When you see that a man makes an effort 
to be dignified and commanding, it is all over with him. The new Gov- 
ernor's eyes look at you, as a certain poet once described somebody's to 
me, " with a very intensified nothing in them." He impressed me as a 
man who intends to do the right thing, and is profoundly convinced that 
he has the full ability to do it, and is profoundly mistaken in that belief. 
He appears to have energy of will, without real energy of character ; can 
do single acts of decision, and has done them already ; but has neither 
the mental ability to understand the condition of Kanzas, nor the moral 
power to carry out any systematic plan for its benefit. His present plan, 
to coerce both parties and play a little Napoleon at Lecompton, w r ill 
inevitably fail, and is failing already. Both sides will cease to respect 
him as soon as they understand him, and it is mere chance which he 
will fall out with first. But he will be the last person in the Territory 
to discover his own failure. 



A RIDE THROUGH KANZAS. 9 

He thinks he has plenary power, commits the most despotic acts with- 
out apparently understanding what he does, sets aside the Territorial 
laws at pleasure, and the United States laws, and all other laws, and yet 
cannot be made to see that he does so. He puts Pro- Slavery militia 
over Free State men, and is organizing bodies of Free State men to keep 
down Pro- Slavery men, and all without law or precedent. So far, he 
has only arrested Free State men ; but I shall not be at all surprised if 
he arrests others. Still, the Free State men cannot consistently make 
complaints under the Territorial laws, and they do not ; and as they 
keep aloof from him, and are learning to despise him, he is almost 
wholly under the influence of the other party. 

What can be expected from a man who proclaims in presence of a 
dozen people, as I heard him, in the most grandiloquent manner, " Gen- 
tlemen, rely upon it that I watch over you always ; my information 
extends everywhere; my spies are everywhere; I shall spend $10,000, 
if necessary, in obtaining information ; two men cannot talk together in 
the streets of Kanzas without my knowing the subject of their machina- 
tions ; in fact, a man can scarcely think, without my knowing the sub- 
ject of his thoughts." Yet these are almost his precise words, not in 
private conversation, but delivered in an almost public manner, and 
written down by me directly after. 

I give this description of the new Governor of Kanzas, because there 
is no public man in the United States whose blunders or errors may be 
more destructive. Of his private life I have nothing to say, and indeed 
know nothing ; but he has undertaken a position so inconsistent and 
difficult that the wisest man could not fill it ; and he is a great way from 
being the wisest. 

As to Redpath's case it was soon dismissed, but not till his keen wit 
had had ample play upon the lofty Governor, who did not for some time 
discover whom he had to deal with ; and when they finally parted, Red- 
path assured the Governor that he need not apologise for his treatment 
of him, and if their positions were ever reversed, he would certainly treat 
him with the same generosity. It was impossible not to laugh, and his 
Excellency bowed us out, looking a little puzzled, and I closed the door, 
feeling that pity one entertains for a man not without good intentions, 
but who has undertaken a task utterly out of proportion to his calibre. 

"We came down to Lawrence that night in the Governor's carriage, 
(the real Governor, who by the way made a noble speech to our emi- 
grants, the day before, in his own simple way,) and it was through the 
most tremendous, sudden storm I was ever out in. It was just after 
sunset, and in an instant all was absolute darkness around us, and the 
lightning came in such intensity that we could see no more than we saw 



10 ANTI-SLAVERY TRACTS. 

without it. The hail came in sheets upon the roof of the vehicle, then 
the rain saturated even its interior ; the horses had to be held in their 
fright ; it was uncomfortable. But I reflected that I had come to Kan- 
zas expecting adventures, and here was one; and then I was being 
driven by a Governor, in his own carriage, moist though it might be. 
And we arrived safely at last. 

y Lawrence is three times the size of Topeka, and delightfully situated ; 
hills, river, and "timber" in plenty; more in this vicinity than I have 
seen anywhere else. Things look less utterly paralyzed than in Topeka, 
where I counted forty-four occupied buildings, and nineteen on which 
work had been begun and abandoned. Here there seems to be some 
employment, but the ruins of the large hotel, and the bare spot where 
Governor Robinson's house stood, and the fortifications across some of 
the principal streets, tell a tale about as sad. There ha's also been far 
more suffering here. Flour has just arrived in abundance, and sells at 
$5.00 per sack of 100 lbs., but, where to get the money ! 

Never have I been in such a community as this ; never seen such 
courage, such patience, such mutual generosity, such perfect buoyancy 
of spirit. Not a man nor a woman seems bent or depressed by all that 
they have suffered ; and they speak of the attack upon the town, a fort- 
night ago to-day, with two thousand eight hundred Missourians outside 
and two hundred and fifty fighting men inside, as lightly as I can now 
speak of the prairie tempest last night. 

IV. — THE PRISONERS. 

Topeka, Sept. 30, 1856. 

Yesterday I visited the prisoners of State, now under confinement at 
Lecompton. It was my second visit to that forlorn little Virginia town. 
I call it thus because the whole sensation is that of the Old Dominion. 
Instead of the rising school-houses and churches of Lawrence, the 
little street is lined with bar-rooms, whereof the chief is the " Virginia 
Saloon." The tavern is true Virginia — bacon, corn-bread, and dirty 
negro boys and girls to wait at table. Southern provincialisms strike 
one's ear at every moment, and the town is garrisoned by Colonel Ti- 
tus's militia, re-enforced yesterday by twenty-five precious youths from 
Georgia, in a high state of whiskey. 

The Governor disavows all control over the prisoners, but Marshal 
Donelson was very ready to admit me to see them. In fact, they were 
very visible, being allowed an area of a square rod or so before their 
prison door, guarded by a few young Missourians, who paced up and 
down with loaded muskets. I met one of the poor fellows, allowed for 
some reason to cross the street, pursued by an evil-looking scoundrel 



A RIDE THROUGH KANZAS. 11 

with fixed bayonet. It is singular how much alike all Slavery's officials 
look. I saw half a dozen times repeated the familiar features of my Bos- 
ton friend, Mr. Asa O. Butman. 

The hundred and five prisoners lounged about, looking as prisoners 
everywhere do. They are kept in a large unfinished wooden building, 
without an atom of furniture of any description. They do their own 
cooking, with very scanty utensils, and such provisions as I shall here- 
after describe. They have obtained with great difficulty fifteen straw 
pallets for the whole company. Some have no blankets ; but the major- 
ity possess the luxury of one apiece. It was an exceedingly cold, windy 
day, when I was there ; the exposed side of the house was unfinished, 
and about half its superficial extent consisted of great gaps through 
which the wind whistled. A few of the men lay about on the floor sick 
with fever and ague. 

Most of them are young men, the flower of the youth of Lawrence. 
They are a light-hearted set of boys, and are resolved to avenge them- 
selves on their captors by perfect indifference to captivity. It comes 
hard, however, on some fathers of families and owners of farms, which 
are alike suffering from their absence. Three weeks labor of a hundred 
men, all lost, in the busiest season of the year, for it is the only time to 
get in the hay for the Winter's supply. 

One man had left six children, all sick, and his wife accidentally ab- 
sent from home ; he said he supposed some of the neighbors would look 
after them ! Another carried in his arms a child, who was, I was told, 
the first child born in Lawrence, and was christened with the name of 
the town. The poor little thing looked rather forlorn, as its pallid father 
carried it up and down the bare prison room ; an early initiation into 
the sorrows of Kanzas. 

Among the crowd I found two of the best emigrants whom Worcester 
had sent, and others who belonged to companies which I had organized. 
Not one of these seemed depressed, but all appeared proud of being 
there. At first, they said, while in the care of the United States troops, 
and encamped on the prairie, there were many escapes ; now the guard 
was so ciose that it was almost impossible. Colonel Titus, who has charge 
of these men, is the head of one division of Kanzas militia, his force being 
chiefly from Missouri and other Southern States ; he is the man whose 
life was humanely spared by the Free State men when they broke up 
his camp of outlaws. He showed his gratitude by informing his Free 
State prisoners that if one of them attempted to escape, he .should blow 
the building to atoms. I looked and saw the cannon actually pointed, 
not upon the entrance, but so as to command the main portion of the 
building. There stood the emblem of despotism, with its conical pile of 



12 ANTI-SLAVERY TRACTS. 

balls beside it. I never saw but one cannon, before, that looked so de- 
testable. That was employed in the same cause, but in Boston instead 
of Lecompton. 

Even now, the men say that some could escape by killing a few sen- 
tinels ; but this they will not do, for a true Kanzas reason — they would 
lose their rifles ; whereas, if liberated, Governor Geary assures them 
that they shall be restored. I doubt this prospect, however, from the 
fact that out of fourteen horses, possessed by different individuals of the 
number when captured, only three can now be found ; and a horse ranks 
second to a Sharp's rifle in the affections of a Kanzas man. 

All these prisoners are bound over for trial in October, on the charge 
of murder in the first degree. You are aware of the brilliant series of 
engagements in which the freemen of Kanzas had driven the invaders 
from their borders before Governor Geary appeared. In most of these 
a few Missourians were killed. In return for this, every Free State man 
who is accused by anybody of having taken part in those engagements is 
in danger of arrest. The greater part, however, were taken after the bat- 
tle at Hickory Point, while of the Pro-Slavery men, who still had the 
black flag flying when these were taken, not one was captured. 

If each of these prisoners had, in broad daylight, deliberately mur- 
dered a man, they could have been placed in no worse position than they 
are now, for simply defending the liberties of their country under most 
fearful provocation. 

For instance, in the attack on Osawkee, the Free State men, on enter- 
ing the Pro -Slavery fort, found a man chained to the floor t by a heavy 
log chain, about eight feet long, which was riveted to his leg. In this 
position he had been kept for six weeks, on the charge of stealing a 
horse. In all the exasperation produced by this discovery, no man was 
killed ; but the Missourians were compelled to perform the labor of de- 
taching the chain from the leg. My informant saw it done. For this 
affair, some of those whom I saw at Lecompton were imprisoned, and 
others in this place are hiding from arrest, or working on their farms 
with a horse ready saddled for instantaneous escape from any suspicious 
visitors. 

All these arrests have been made by the United States troops, whom 
it is the present policy of the people not to resist. But this patience can- 
not last forever ; and I only repeat, what I have every day asserted, 
when I say that the election of Fremont is the only thing that can avert 
a bloodier conflict than has ever yet stained this soil. For myself, I 
do not believe that even that will do it. When not a single Pro-Slavery 
man is arrested, how can men help seeing that the power of the Union 
is sustaining Missouri r 



A RIDE THROUGH KANZAS. 13 

The Governor excuses himself by saying that the Free State men 
make no complaints. But he does not wait for complaints on the other 
side, and he admitted to me that he sent up to arrest the leaders of our 
train of emigrants without an affidavit from any one. He has been 
repeatedly informed of the reason why the Free State men do not make 
complaints — namely, that they repudiate the bogus laws and despise 
the Judges. But he never will understand it, if it is stated to him every 
day during his stay in Kanzas. 

I think he means to be kind to the prisoners, and he readily consented 
to order some additional blankets for them, and to suggest some im- 
provement in their fare ; he also, on being requested, directed the ' Mar- 
shal to close up the chinks in the building above referred to. 

I took down a list of the prisoners. They came from the following 
States : Maine three, New Hampshire one, Vermont three, Massachu- 
setts twelve, Rhode Island two, Connecticut one, New York thirteen, 
Ohio twelve, Michigan five, Indiana twelve, Illinois twenty-three, "Wis- 
consin five, Iowa nine, Missouri six ; total, one hundred and seven. I 
took pains to collect their names and origin, from their own lips, that 
we of the Free States may see that these are our own fellow-citizens. 

The first prisoners were captured September 10, kept by the United 
States troops ten days, (having on one occasion but one biscuit each for 
thirty-six hours,) and then transferred to their present position, of which 
I add a further illustration from another source. 



Statement of Provisions furnished the Prisoners for their first 

week at lecompton. 

" Monday, Sept. 20. — Received no rations from United States Camp. 
Moved to Lecompton. Received at 5 o'clock, 1 sack of ' shorts,' baked 
into bread — 1 do. not baked ; 75 lbs. of bacon ; 6 candles. 103 men. 
No coffee or sugar. 

" Tuesday Evening. — 1 sack of shorts, 103 lbs. of bacon, 4 lbs. of 
coffee, 6 lbs. of sugar, 8 or 10 lbs. of salt, .1 lb. of saleratus, 1 gallon of 
molasses. 103 men. 

" Wednesday Evening. — 1 sack of shorts, 5 lbs. of coffee, 5 lbs. of 
sugar, 1 gallon of molasses, 1 lb. of saleratus. 105 men. 

" Thursday Evening. — 1 sack of flour, 50 lbs. of bacon, 6 lbs. of coffee, 
no sugar, 1 lb. of saleratus, 1 gallon of vinegar, 3 candles, 1 gallon of 
molasses. Provisions brought after dark. 105 men. 

" Friday, 2 o'clock. — Called on Sergeant of the Guard for provisions : 
was informed that he had spoken to the Marshal and that we were cur- 
tailed to two meals per day. Half past 4, Marshal came, brought 50 lbs. 
of bacon, fore-quarter of beef, about 110 lbs., 125 lbs. of flour, 1 bushel 
of green beans in the pod, 6 lbs. of coffee, no sugar, no salt ; we got 
about 1 quart of salt from a neighbor. 7 o'clock, fresh arrival of nine 
prisoners. Marshal brought 3 candles for the whole amount of us, 111 
men ; furnished 15 mattresses to sleep on. 
2 



14 ANTI-SLAVERY TRACTS. 

" Saturday. — Received 25 lbs. of beef, 125 lbs. of flour, one small sack 
of salt, one gallon of molasses, 6 lbs. of coffee. [Ill men.] Spoke to 
Marshal in behalf of nine men brought here yesterday, who had no 
blankets, and was told that it was impossible to furnish any for them. 
He afterwards brought three quilts for them. 

" Sunday. — About 100 lbs. of beef, much damaged, 125 lbs. of flour, 
6 lbs. of coffee, £ lb. saleratus, 1 peck of beans, 3 candles, 4 lbs. of sugar. 

" We give the above as the amount of provisions received by the prison- 
ers since coming to Lecompton, and are willing to make oath to the same. 

"E. It. Falley, 
"Artemas H. Parker, 
" Commissaries for the prisoners to distribute their provisions." 

N. B. — Mr. Parker is well known to me as a worthy citizen of Clin- 
ton, Mass., who emigrated this Spring. 

V. — THE PEOPLE. 

Lawrence, October 4, 1856. 

Ever since the rendition of Anthony Burns, in Boston, I have been 
looking for men. I have found them in Kanzas. The virtue of courage 
(for although these"two words originally meant the same thing, they 
have become separated now) has not died out of the Anglo-American 
race, as some have hastily supposed. It needs only circumstances to 
bring it out. A single day in Kanzas makes the American Revolution 
more intelligible than all Sparks or Hildreth can do. The same event 
is still in progress here. 

I have always wondered whether, in the midst of war, tumult, and 
death, the same daily current of life went on, and men's hearts accom- 
modated themselves to the occasion. In heroic races, I now see that it 
is so. In Kanzas, nobody talks of courage, for every one is expected 
to exhibit it. 

Take, for instance, the Sunday attack on Lawrence, a fortnight ago. 
The army which approached it consisted of 2,800 by the estimate here — 
3,000 by Governor Geary's estimate, and 3,200 by the statement of The 
Missouri Republican, in a singular article, which described the capture of 
the town, although it never happened. This force was in sight the 
greater part of the day, and though Governor Geary's aid was invoked, 
it was known that it could not arrive till evening ; thus allowing time 
for the destruction of everything. 

Against this force, the number at first counted upon was one hundred ; 
that being the supposed number of fighting men left, after the arrest of 
the hundred about whom I wrote to you, as prisoners. To the surprise 
of all, however, more than two hundred rallied to the fort. The lame 
eame on crutches, and the sick in blankets. 

Two hundred men against fourteen times their number ! And the 



A RIDE THROUGH KANZAS. 15 

fort a mere earthen redoubt, of no pretensions — for the only fort worth 
the name is on the hill above the town, and was at this time useless. 
And yet (here comes the point) I was assured by Governor Robinson 
and a dozen others, that among this devoted handful the highest spirits 
prevailed ; they were laughing and joking as usual, and only intent on 
selling their lives as dearly as possible. 

They had no regular commander, any more than at Bunker Hill ; but 
the famous " Old Captain Brown " moved about among them, saying, 
" Fire low, boys ; be sure to bring down your eye to the hinder sight of 
your rifle, and aim at the feet rather than the head." 

A few women were in the fort that day — all who could be armed. 
Others spent the whole Sunday making cartridges. I asked one of these 
how she felt : "Well, I can't remember that I felt any way different 
from usual," answered the quiet housekeeper, after due reflection. So 
they all say. One young girl sat at her door, reading, a mile or so from 
the scene of action. " Once in a while I looked up," she said, " when 
there was a louder shot than usual." 

The chief fighting was among skirmishers, and there was no actual 
attack on the fort. The newspapers have had the particulars before, and 
I only mention the affair to show the spirit of buoyant courage which 
almost universally prevails. It must be remembered, also, that even 
now these people are poorly armed, and still worse off for ammunition. 
On this occasion they had but a few rounds apiece. 

Persons at the North who grudge their small subscriptions to Kanzas, 
should remember that a few dollars may sometimes save a thousand. 
Osawatamie was sacrificed, after one of the most heroic defences in his- 
tory, for want of ammunition. Brown and twenty-seven others resisted 
two hundred, killing thirty-three and wounding forty-nine, (eighty-two 
in all, by the Pro-Slavery statement,) and then retreated through these, 
with the loss of but one man, shot as he was swimming the creek. A 
hundred dollars worth of ammunition would have prevented, on that 
occasion, the destruction of $60,000 worth of property. 

I walked out yesterday to the scene of the last fight at Franklin, and 
heard the narrative from one of the Pro-Slavery men who had defended 
the fort. He said " he did n't like those d — d Sharp's rifles ; did n't mind 
the ball so much, but hated the whizzing of them" — just, I suppose, as 
the hum of a mosquito is more annoying than the bite. He said also : 
" As soon as they shoved up the wagon-load of hay, and set it on fire, 
we boys cried for quarter, and then we all ran." I saw where the hay 
was taken from, a very exposed place, and where the door had been 
burned by it. Ho showed also the narrow space through which the de- 
fenders fired, and I observed that nearly all the rifle balls of the assail- 



16 ANTI-SLAVERY TRACTS. 

ants went above it, the tendency of Sharp's rifles in inexperienced hands. 
My Pro-Slavery friend dug out one of these for me, as a memorial. 

Franklin was the place where the Free State men were charged with 
plundering the letters from the Post- Office. I suppose it will not have 
the smallest effect on the Democratic newspapers when I say that this 
young man, the postmaster's son, entirely denied this story. He only 
charged them with stealing sixty dollars worth of stamps. But as the 
village of Franklin consists of less than a dozen houses, and as I have 
found it hard to buy a dollar's worth of stamps at much larger places in 
this region, I must doubt the precise accuracy of these figures, and I 
told him so. 

Since breaking up this den of thieves, the vicinity has been quiet, ex- 
cept when the noble army of two thousand eight hundred, on returning, 
burnt a large mill close by, on which the whole neighborhood depended 
for meal and lumber. It is not far from here to Blanton's Bridge, which 
the Grand Jury declared a nuisance, because it gave aid and comfort to 
Free State men. I suppose that this mill was a nuisance for the same 
reason. The heaps of sawdust of the building were still in flames as I 
stood before them. 

The owner of this mill was a Pennsylvanian, named Straub. We saw 
his daughter, a noble looking girl of 20, but rather unnecessarily saucy 
and spirited in her replies, I at first thought. Presently she said, with 
surprise, " Why, I thought you were Missourians, and I was resolved that 
you should hear the truth." This was a piece of genuine Kanzas pluck, 
as it was a lonely place, and we were three to one. Afterward, we 
found that this girl had walked alone into the midst of the Missourians, 
while the house and mill were burning, and demanded her horse from 
one of them with such spirit that the others compelled him to dismount. 
She mounted it and rode away — he presently followed and attempted 
to get the halter from her hand. She held on. He took his bowie- 
knife and threatened to cut her hand off; she told him to do it if he 
dared ; he cut the rope close to her hand, and led the horse away. She 
slipped off, and presently two of the man's companions rode up and 
brought her the horse once more. A horse is worth more than a life in 
this region, and you can estimate the extent of such a triumph. 

As for Lawrence, it has one of the most beautiful situations I ever 
looked upon. It stands on a bank above a bend in the river ; across the 
river are miles of woods, while behind the town rise two beautiful hills, 
which are hills, and not merely the endless swells of rolling prairie of 
which my Eastern eyes have grown so tired. Indeed, this whole region 
far surpasses, in respect to hills and forest, both Iowa and Nebraska, and 
even Northern Kanzas, while the prairies are richer, and coal and stone 
are interspersed. Give it freedom, and a few years will make Kanzas 



A RIDE THROUGH KANZAS. 17 

the garden of America. This year the Missourians have almost ruined 
the corn ; but never have I seen such luxuriance of melons, squashes, 
and pumpkins. I have seen some fine stock, too, on the more favored 
farms ; but that kind of riches soon takes to itself legs, more dangerous, 
in the present state of Kanzas, than the proverbial wings. 

Lawrence is three times as large as Topeka, and at present much more 
busy. It has, however, suffered much more from want of food. For 
instance, I have just talked with a man whom I knew at the East. " I 
came out here," said he, " with $1,500 in money. I have served through 
the whole war. My wife and nine children have lived more than two 
weeks on green corn and squash. I have in my house no meat, no flour, 
no meal, no potatoes, no money to buy them, no prospect of a dollar ; 
but Vll live or die in Kanzas!" 

Afterwards this man's wife wrote to me in almost the same words. 

Such is the spirit of multitudes, many of whom are as badly off as this 
man. There is the greatest generosity, and men share with each other 
while anything is left ; but after that, what then ? 

The State Committee works with energy and system to relieve distress, 
and may be entirely relied upon, but its funds are also exhausted. The 
expense of sending emigrants, arms, and ammunition, through Iowa and 
Nebraska, has been so enormous, that but little has yet reached Kanzas 
in any other form ; and the cost of supporting the army here has been 
also enormous — some $300 per day. At the very time when farm labor 
was most needed, all the able-bodied men have been obliged to live for 
weeks in camp, at the public expense — they themselves being the prin- 
cipal public. 

This discourages and drives out the timid and lukewarm, and educates 
the remainder to endurance. People in Kanzas are like Indians — they 
eat what they can, and sleep where they can ; and when they have no 
house and no food they wait awhile till something turns up. I can see 
that this state of things brings out some bad qualities, but far more good 
ones. 

Last Sunday I preached in this place (though I must say that I am 
commonly known here by a title which is elsewhere considered incom- 
patible with even the Church Militant.) It was quite an occasion; 
and I took for my text the one employed by the Rev. John Martin the 
Sunday after he fought at Bunker Hill — Neh. iv : 14 ; " Be not ye 
afraid of them ; remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and 
fight for your brethren, your sons and your daughters, your wives and 
your houses." 

To-night I speak again, and leave to-morrow for Leavenworth, there to 
witness a Border Ruffian election, as there is to be no voting at Lawrence. 
2* 



18 ANTI-SLAVERY TRACTS. 

VI. — A KANZAS ELECTION. 

Leavenworth, K. T., Oct. 6, 1856. 

I have come over to see the election. The road from Lawrence runs 
thirty-three miles through the most beautiful region of Kanzas, the Del- 
aware Reserve. It is mostly well wooded, and all the soil is luxuriant. 
There are only a few Indian cabins on the way, but some points of the 
road have a sad celebrity. In the hospital, at Lawrence, I saw two men 
recovering from terrible wounds in the head, inflicted, not by P. S. 
Brooks, M. C, but by his humbler imitators in Missouri. The case was 
this. Three men w r ere riding, unarmed, from Lawrence to Leavenworth. 
They were captured by a small posse of the enemy, and shot in cold 
blood the next morning. One had his jaw terribly broken, and w r as left 
for dead. Another lay wounded and the wretches felt his pulse, as is 
their practice, and finding it still beating, knocked him on the head with 
their guns, till life seemed extinct. These were the two I saw ; the third 
was killed ; "and amid those lovely woods and fields, a pile of eaith and 
a roadside stake are his only memorial. 

We passed also the spot where Mr. Hops was murdered and scalped, 
for a bet of a pair of boots. Now the road is comparatively safe, or 
what the stage-driver calls safe; "lastAveek there was only one man 
taken off the stage, who hasn't since been heard from." But I rode 
across with an old farmer and his boy, unmolested, though we met a few 
small parties of Missourians on horseback, some of them riding double, 
as they occasionally do. 

The Free State hotels in Leavenworth are broken up. (Do n't be sur- 
prised to hear of a " Free State hotel" in regions where men distinguish 
between a Pro-Slavery and an Anti-Slavery cow.) The chief tavern at 
present is kept by a man named McCarty, who is building a large new 
brick one. He is desperately Pro-Slavery, and in conjunction with 
Majors and Russell, the great Government contractors, originated the 
late riots in the town. 

Leavenworth is twice as large as Law r rence, has a fine situation on the 
river and fine scenery around. The landing is good, and with New 
England enterprise it would be destined to greatness, and by the aid of 
Government business it may yet attain it. But never did I see such 
universal drinking. There must be more than fifty liquor shops for some 
two thousand inhabitants; the doors of the Leavenworth Hotel are 
adorned with a row of whiskey casks and of barrels full of empty bottles ; 
and the bar-room is crowded all day. 

Despite this, it is said to be the quietest election-day ever known. 
None of the Anti- Slavery men vote, very properly declining to recognize 
the validity of an election under the bogus laws, and there is but one 
ticket running, which I send. 



A RIDE THROUGH KANZAS. 19 



LAW AND ORDER TICKET. 

For Congress. 
Oen. J. W. WHITFIELD. 



For Convention. 



Legislature. 

No Regular Nomination. 

Four to be elected. 
W. Q. Mathias, A. Payne, 

J. W. Martin, D. J. Johnston, 

Mat. Walker, A. R. Kellum, 

L. F. HoLLINGSWORTH, E. M. KENNEDY, 

S. J. Kookogy, Moses Young. 

There are local interests and jealousies for particular candidates, four 
only out of ten being eligible, but the Slavery question is not raised. 
The favorite candidate, Martin, is captain of the atrocious Kickapoo Ran- 
gers, and the character of the whole may be easily inferred. 

As for the voting, nothing can be more free and easy. Strangers are 
pressed to take a share in it, as if it were something to drink. Nothing 
seems necessary except to hand in a ticket at a small office window, and 
announce one's name ; no questions appeared to be asked. I was urged 
to do this by bystanders, in spite of my assurances that I was merely a 
traveller, not a resident ; they assured me it made no difference. I saw 
the same persuasions succeed with persons who obviously did not come 
in for the purpose. But many openly proclaimed that as the only object 
of their visit, and coolly debated the most available points to throw Pro- 
Slavery votes, just as a knot of country merchants might debate whether 
to go to New York or Boston for their purchases. 

Indeed, there is a delightful absence of hypocrisy in all this region. 
They leave all that to Eastern politicians, editors, and clergymen. There 
is very little dispute about the main facts of the case. Every Pro- Sla- 
very man admits the important ones, and defends them. " The end (i. e. 
Slavery) justifi.es the means." I wish some of our beclouded and be- 
fogged Democratic brethren could sit for an hour or two on McCarty's 
door steps, of an evening. For instance, last night there was general 

applause when a leading man said, " By , I wish the Abolitionists 

would just kill one or two of our men, moderate men, you know, not 
good for much, but just enough to let us claim them as ours — anything 
to give us a handle." And yet the political allies of this worthy person- 
age are every day declaring that the whole excitement is only kept up to 
make capital for the Fremont party. 

Once the conversation began to grow rather personal. Said one man, 
just from Lecompton, "Tell you what, we've found out one thing, 
there 's a preacher going about here preaching politics." " Fact ? " and 
"is that so?" was echoed with virtuous indignation on all sides. 
"That's so," continued he, " and he fixes it this way ; first, he has his 
text and preaches religion ; then he drops that and pitches into politics ; 
and then he drops that, too, and begins about the sufferin' niggers " 
(with ineffable contempt) ; " and what 's more, he 's here in Leaven* 
worth now." " What 's his name ? " exclaimed several, eagerly. " Just 
what I do n't know," was the sorrowful reply, " and I should n't know 
him if I saw him, but he's here, boys, and in a day or two there'll be 
some gentlemen here that know him." (N. B. At my last speech in 



20 



ANTI-SLAVERY TRACTS. 



Lawrence, I was warned that three Missouri spies were present.) " It's 
well we 've got him here, to take care of him," said one. " Wont our 
boys enjoy running him out of town?" added another, affectionately; 
while I listened with pleased attention, thinking that I might, perhaps, 
afford useful information. But the " gentlemen" have not yet appeared, 
or else are in search of higher game. 

The causes of the quiet which reigns to-day are apparently the pres- 
ence of a few United States troops, and the absence of provocation from 
the non- voting party. That the latter cause would not be alone suffi- 
cient is manifest from the fact that the last riots were produced merely 
by a similar refusal to vote. 

I observe here a large class of young men who are evidently not Mis- 
sourians, but from other Southern States — a slender, puny race, with 
good manners and bloated faces. One of them, a Virginian, bearing the 
appropriate name of Stringfellow, has apparently felt called upon, in a 
drunken fit, to vindicate the character of the peculiar institution, and 
has, therefore, just summoned before him his slave, a neat-looking boy 
of sixteen. "B-B-Bill," says the representative of chivalry, "do you 
know me?" "Yes, mas'r," returns Bill, respectfully. "Have you 
ever been in chains, Bill ? " stammers out the specimen of the superior 
race, with the impressive seriousness of inebriation. "Never, sir." 
" Ever expect to be in chains, Bill ? " " Never, sir." " G-g-good boy, 
Bill, take something to drink, Bill ? " Which offer Bill declines, rather 
to my surprise, and is dismissed with a slight contempt as being after all 
a poor creature, chains or no chains. 

A party of these gentry leave with me, to-night, in the boat for St. 
Louis, and I shall make further acquaintance with them. 

VII— DOWN THE RIVER. 
Steamboat Cataract, Missouri River, Oct. 9, 1856. 

We have left Kanzas behind, and my last association with it is of three 
pistol-shots which killed, in a drunken row, one of the self same com- 
pany of Virginia and South Carolina youths who were swaggering in our 
cabin when I went to bed. I did not, however, know of the catastrophe 
till the next morning. I am told that the remains of the poor young 
man were taken into a gambling-room and laid upon a table, after which 
the gambling went on as before. 

We are gliding down the rapid Missouri, now shouldering over a 
sandbank, now shuddering over a snag ; while the endless woods look 
dewy and beautiful in early morning or moonlight, and very hot at noon. 
The yellow dust drifts over the bare islands which the shrinking water 
has left, and buzzards and wild geese shriek and soar away through its 
midst. 

The tumultuous steamboat dinner is despatched with that rushing 
rapidity which is usual on such occasions, where people, having nothing 
to do afterward, are in a proportionate hurry to do it. As I look up 
and down the long table, and at the row of guests who sit with their 
glasses of Missouri water like tumblers of lemonade before them, it is sad 
to think that among those sixty men there are not half a dozen who be- 
long to the same nation with myself. For what constitutes a common 
nationality except common ideas, principles, habits, and purposes ? and 
in all these I find myself more alone than I should be among English, 
French, or Russians. 

The majority are young men from various Southern States — Virginia, 



A RIDE THROUGH KANZAS. 21 

Kentucky, the Carolinas, and Georgia — who have been to Kanzas ex- 
pressly to fight men from Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New York, 
Michigan, Illinois, and so on. And yet people speak of civil war as only 
a thing that may be, when there is scarcely a State in the Union which 
has not been already involved in civil war, through its representatives 
here. The simple fact is, that slaveholders and freemen are always two 
nations. I could speak my whole thoughts more safely in Berlin or St. 
Petersburg than here, except indeed that these enemies are more sus- 
ceptible of fear. 

By their own account, indeed, they show a poor record in this respect. 
Yesterday they were declared by their lieutenant, who alone wears a 
military coat, to be a pack of cowards ; and he further asserted that in 
the point of danger they had been accustomed to take a vote whether to 
fight or run, and always ran ! 

Most of them are quite young and slender, with a dull, profligate look, 
while a few have open, simple faces, that seem strangely out of place. 
They have an easy, natural politeness, and swear, chew, and play cards 
enormously. 

They are not in the least hypocrites or doughfaces ; too uninstructed 
for that. One of them said, naively, in my hearing, with a sort of ten- 
der regret, " Do n't you remember when we went up the river, we were 
all of us drunk all the time ? " " So we were," replied another, himself 
not far from that condition, " and so we should be now, only we 've got 
no money." 

They proclaim openly that they went to Kanzas to fight and vote for 
Slavery. All finally voted at Leavenworth ; and, having done that, are 
going home. But they complain bitterly of Atchison and others, who 
induced them to go ; they say they were promised support for a year 
and fifty dollars in money, and yet they have had to support themselves 
almost entirely ; and now very few have more than enough to take them 
to St. Louis, and some were unable to leave Leavenworth for want of 
even that. " Let me once get home," said the same youth who made 
the above confession, "and I'll stay at home, sure. It's cost me the 
price of one good nigger, just for board and liquor, since I left home." 

"Wo unto them, for they have cast lots for my people and sold a girl 
for wine, that I may drink." Let me confess that this apt bit of Scrip- 
ture I obtain not from memory but from " Dred," of which I bought an 
early copy at Lawrence. Several of the passengers have borrowed and 
examined it, with various comments, but no threatening ones. I could 
easily fill the margin of the book with sketches of illustrative faces, 
especially those of Ben Dakin, Jim Stokes, and the unfortunate Cripps. 
The romance reads well in the midst of the reality, though to be sure 
we have no actual slaves on board, except one young Topsy in a yellow 
apron, who stands as patiently as her nature permits, behind the chair 
of a stout lady, in the consecrated upper end of the long cabin. (I never 
saw the aesthetic inequality of the sexes so fully recognised as in a Mis- 
souri River steamboat.) 

October 11. — Yesterday we spent on a sand-bank, till at nightfall the 
steamer F. X. Aubry came along and pulled us off. We proceeded in 
company till at another difficult place the two boat-loads were disem- 
barked, and we all walked half a mile along the shore. Then came out 
a startling story ; how H. Miles Moore, Esq., Secretary of the Kanzas 
State Committee, had taken passage on board the other boat — after 
being released from a malicious arrest at Kanzas City ; how the South 



22 ANTI-SLAVERY TRACTS. 

Carolina and Virginia rowdies on the boat, finding him alone and un- 
armed, had threatened to hang him, and were proceeding to actual vio- 
lence, when Governor Cobb, of Alabama, and the captain interfered and 
put him, for protection, in a state-room in the ladies' cabin ; and how all 
thought he actually owed his life to them. Seeking him out, I found 
that it was all true; although the "honor" of Governor Cobb and some 
of the rowdies themselves was now pledged for his safety. It appeared 
to me, however, that a transfer to our boat and the loan of a revolver 
would be a better security ; and that night he availed himself of it, there 
being fortunately a vacant berth in my state-room. The men on our 
boat were quite as far gone with whiskey as those on the other, and 
made common cause with them ; but these were fewer in number, and 
we had three or four very reliable New England men, who kept a good 
lookout. And caution was needed, for the excitement rose again as we 
lay at Jefferson City over night, and inquiry began to be made as to the 
whereabouts of Moore. But Governor Cobb got up a visit to Governor 
Price, on the part of the passengers ; and then there was a dance in the 
other boat; and when, about 10£ o'clock, the ringleaders began to whis- 
per mischief again, part of their men were asleep and part in a worse 
condition, and the noble design fell through and we were undisturbed. 
I was glad to have him there, for I could not bear that he should owe 
his safety to the protection of a slaveholder. 

We reached St. Louis this afternoon, four days and a half from Leav- 
enworth, a trip which usually takes less than three. Kanzas and its 
perils lie behind, and there is no excitement but elections. Well, one 
does feel a little homesick for Kanzas, I can assure you, and at some 
future day The Tribune may hear again from its correspondent. 

I did not, however, go out as a settler, but simply to see the country 
for myself. Yet if I did not live in Massachusetts, I would live in Kanzas. 

VIII. THE FUTURE. 

Worcester, Mass., October 20, 1856. 

I find that my letters from Kanzas seem incomplete without a final 
appendix, in regard to the immediate future of that region. Perhaps 
the observation of a visitor to the Territory may have seen some things 
in a different light from that of its residents, or from that of those who 
have never been there. 

Moreover, I have observed for many years that the more thorough an 
Abolitionist any man is, the more correct are his prophecies as to Amer- 
ican affairs ; and in this respect, at least, the present writer is pretty well 
qualified. I will therefore give the reasons which lead me to think, 
contrary to the opinions of many at the East, that the present compara- 
tive quiet of Kanzas is only the prelude to a severer struggle than any she 
has yet seen ; that this struggle will occur soon after the Presidential 
election ; and that it will be almost equally certain to occur, whether 
Fremont or Buchanan be elected. 

The foundation for these opinions can be made very intelligible. 

1. The real question at issue is, not the invasions of Missourians, nor 
the blockading of the river, but the enforcing of the bogus laws. The 
laws still exist, the Courts are still controlled by Missouri, and this is 
the real root of the difficulty, over which neither Governor Geary nor 
any one else (except Congress) has any legitimate control. The essen- 
tial trouble, therefore, must either remain unsettled till Congress meets 
again, or be settled by force. 



A BIDE THROUGH KANZAS. 23 

2. There is not the slightest increase of harmony between the parties, 
but the contrary. Both sides expect to see the contest renewed. I did 
not hear of a single man, on either side, except Governor Geary and his 
satellites, who thought otherwise. 

3. Both sides are making actual preparations for a renewal. The set- 
tlers are collecting arms, ammunition, and fresh men. The Missourians 
are doing the same. True, men from both sides are leaving the country ; 
but they are going, either with the design to return soon after the elec- 
tion, or else from personal dissatisfaction — not because they expect 
permanent peace. 

4. Neither party desires peace, under the present auspices. The Mis- 
sourians do not desire it, until they see that it involves the speedy intro- 
duction of Slavery. And the settlers do not desire it, when it means 
submission to the laws which a foreign State imposed upon them, and 
the daily arrest of their own men while Pro- Slavery men go free. 

5. War always educates men to itself, disciplines them, teaches them 
to bear its fatigue, anxiety, and danger, and actually to enjoy them. I 
saw abundant instances of this on the Free State side ; and I believe it 
to be so with the Missourians. Everybody testified that the army of 
two thousand eight hundred, which last besieged Lawrence, was better 
armed and better drilled than any previous invading force ; and all 
agreed that at the battle of Hickory Point the Missourians showed more 
courage than ever before. 

6. The whole tendency of Governor Geary's policy is to exasperate 
both sides, and, indeed, actually to strengthen both. Take a single in- 
stance : What can be more preposterous than his plan of organizing the 
two parties, " man for man," (as he expressed it to me,) into military 
companies ? Imagine an Irish mob, and the Governor stopping them to 
say, " Hold on my hearties ! lay down your shillelahs, while I give you 
Sharp's rifles, teach you the art of war, and pick out your bravest men 
to lead you properly ! " Yet this is precisely what Geary has done. 
He has organized two companies of Free State men, and two of Pro- 
Slavery men ; he arms them, pays them, and officers them with the 
very leaders who have been foremost in the fray. At Lawrence, Captain 
Walker, who led the attack on Titus's fort, now heads one company 
under the Governor's system, while Titus heads another. Lieutenant 
Harvey, of the new Lawrence company, is the Colonel Harvey of Hick- 
ory Point notoriety. His men lie in prison, while he is put in office : 
but there is no change in him, only in the Governor. And in Topeka, 
with the other Free State company, the same folly is played over. The 
Governor may fancy this a peace measure, if he will ; I call it a war 
measure, and confidently expect to see the conflict recommence among 
his own troops. 

7. The reason why the strife is postponed, by tacit agreement, is easily 
told. The Missourians are waiting, in stronger and stronger hopes that 
Geary will do their work. The Free State men submit to his aggres- 
sions, only because the election is coming. That, and that only, 
gives them patience ; precisely as the hope of flight to Canada keeps 
slaves from insurrection. They cling to the hope, not of escaping the 
contest, but of placing it on a more favorable footing. Take away the 
dream of Fremont, and no power could make these injured men endure 
a week longer the combined oppression of the Administration and of 
Missouri. Besides, every letter that comes to them from the East, ex- 



24 ANTI-SLAVERY TRACTS. 

horts them to "endure till November, and all will be well." Is it 
strange, then, if they seem almost too submissive, with such a prospect ? 

8. The trial of the Lecompton prisoners will furnish fuel to the flames, 
and perhaps the final explosion. Most of them will, no doubt, be acquit- 
ted. But the Pro-Slavery men will not submit to the liberation of all, 
nor the Anti- Slavery men to the execution of any. 

9. Look out, therefore, for trouble in Kanzas, in November. Elect 
Fremont, and there will be a last desperate effort of Missouri to obtain 
possession of Kanzas. In this they will rely on the aid of the United 
States Courts and troops, and will have it, whatever Gov. Geary says. 
The policy of the Administration will be unchanged. It is absurd to 
suppose that Pierce, Cushing, and Douglass will not still bid for South- 
ern favor, after the election of Fremont. They will have nothing else left 
to do. They will look out for a Pro- Slavery reaction four years after- 
ward, (and it will come then, if not sooner,) and steer for that wave. 
Still, the Kanzas men will have a great advantage, for the United States 
troops will not in that case act against them with a will, and they have 
nothing else to fear. 

In case of Buchanan's election, the whole power of Missouri, backed 
by the whole power of the Administration, will be directed upon Kanzas. 
The two forces will be identified. They will be brought to bear as one ; 
and, thank God, resisted as one. The defenders of Freedom will fight, 
at last, as they never yet have fought. Heretofore, they have submitted 
to injuries from the weakest United States official, which they would 
never have borne from whole armies of Missourians. They will not 
make this nice distinction much longer. Oppression is oppression, 
wherever it comes from, they will say. " If that is treason, make the 
most of it." 

We must have a new dictionary, and the definition of this much abused 
word must be : "Treason, the rope by which the real traitors seek to 
hang those who resist them." 

Such treason as this is fast ripening in Kanzas. Call it revolution if 
you please. 

If the United States Government and Border-Ruffianism are to mean 
the same thing, the sooner the people of Kanzas have revolution the 
better. So they will say, and who shall gainsay it ? They have borne 
to the utmost. Another ounce of weight, and they will bear it no longer ; 
and a less thing than the dispersion of their Legislature, or the destruc- 
tion of their hotel, will be the signal. 

Before I went to Kanzas I feared that her children would gradually 
scatter and flee, rather than meet a final, desperate struggle. I stand 
corrected. They will stay and meet it. They will meet it, if need be, 
unaided. 

Will they be unaided ? Ask Governor Grimes and the thousands of 
freemen of IoAva. Ask every man who has a heart left in his bosom. 

Kanzas may be crushed, but not without a final struggle more fearful 
than that of Hungary ; a struggle which will convulse a continent before 
it is ended, and separate forever those two nations of North and South, 
which neither Union nor Constitution has yet welded into one. 




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